Desktop Add-ons

KDE Look has wallpapers, splash screens, icons, and themes for windows managers (including Kwin and Compiz) and other applications.

KDE Artwork

KDE Artwork is the package that contains themes, wallpapers, screensavers, widget styles, emoticons, and miscellaneous multimedia enhancers for the current KDE theme. Install:

sudo apt-get install kdeartwork

Change background wallpaper

A variety of choices to use for the background screen wallpaper are available, including a slideshow of images set to change at a determined interval, a Picture of the Day obtained from one of several online sources, a Mandelbrot pattern, a Weather forecast display, or a map selected from one of several sources.

Note: The kdeplasma-addons package may need to be added to your system for all options to work.

Sets of differently-sized wallpapers are stored in /usr/share/wallpapers. For example, there is a folder of default wallpapers named Elarun. To some users, it is desirable to replace these wallpapers with more aesthetically appealing ones, which can be done merely by backing up the old wallpapers and then storing similarly named graphic files (of equivalent sizes) in the same folder.

Change Plymouth Splash Screen

This is the initial splash screen you see at bootup. Different Plymouth themes can be found by searching for plymouth-theme in a Package Manager. Install a new one and then:

"Add Widgets" and select from one of the already installed widgets/plasmoids.

Example: Add the Comic Strip widget/plasmoid. This will display a comic strip from the Internet. Click on the wrench icon to choose the comic strip, such as Dilbert.

Example: Add the Picture Frame widget/plasmoid (Plasma Picture of the Day). This will display either a single image or a slideshow of images from a folder or from a variety of Internet sources. Click on the wrench icon to choose the source.

"Install New Widgets".

"Download new Plasma Widgets" to choose a widget/plasmoid from KDE-look.

To add support for webpage widgets written in HTML and JavaScript and for the Apple Mac OS X dashboard widgets you first may need to install the WebKit script engine:

sudo apt-get install plasma-scriptengine-webkit

Note: There may be problems installing Mac OS X widgets in some versions of KDE. See this KDE forum thread.

For troubleshooting the addition of plasmoids in KDE 4.5 see this page.

A large collection of KDE plasma widget addons can be installed:

sudo apt-get install kdeplasma-addons

or

sudo apt-get install plasma-widgets-addons

Add scripting for Plasma Widgets

Many installable widgets use customised scripts (written in Ruby, Perl, Python, Java, or another scripting language). Each may require installation of a scripting engine. All the script engines can be installed at once:

sudo apt-get install plasma-scriptengines

Run widgets in a screensaver

Add Plasma Widget packages

A large number of Plasma Widgets are available as packages, not as widget add-ons. To find a list of these, search for plasma-widget in your package manager (e.g. Muon or Synaptic). For example, to install the Flickr plasma widget, install the plasma-widget-flickr package. Similar complete packages include Google Calendar, Fortunoid, Translatoid, Customizable Weather, Next Wallpaper, and other plasmoid packages.

Fusion Icon

Fusion Icon is a tray icon that allows you to easily switch between window managers (such as between KWin and Compiz), window decorators, and gives you quick access to the Settings Manager. This allows quick toggling of 3-D desktop effects (that may not be compatible with some applications).

sudo apt-get install fusion-icon

Start:

K menu -> System -> Compiz Fusion Icon

You can then easily access CompizConfig Settings Manager from the icon.

Rotate the Compiz Cube

Set the CompizConfig Settings Manager to enable the "Desktop Cube" and "Rotate Cube" and "Viewport Switching" options. Click on the icon for each to customize settings. For example, to change the appearance of the cube, click on the Desktop Cube icon to access its settings. You can set the hotkey buttons for rotating the cube in the "Viewport Switching" settings. Otherwise, hold down the Ctrl+Alt+Left mouse button and drag the mouse (or touchpad) the direction you want to rotate the cube.

Remember, the cube rotates between desktops. It's not a cube unless you have at least 4 desktops running. You will not get a cube if you are only using 2 desktops (you will get a "plate"). You can still rotate the sides of the plate, of course, but it will not be a cube. (Recent users from the Windows OS may have no experience with the concept of simultaneous desktops, but they are nice once you learn how to use them).

When running Compiz fusion as the Windows Manager, you must change the default number of desktops from within CompizConfig Settings Manger. To enable 4 desktops:

When you start an application, you can assign it to any one of the 4 desktops by right-clicking the upper left corner of the application window and choosing the "To Desktop..." option. Rotating the cube shows the different desktops. You can also go to a desktop using the taskbar icon which shows the 4 desktops.

Emerald

Emerald is the theme engine for Compiz Fusion. Multiple themes are available from KDE Look, some of which are used in KWin as well. Oxygen, a default theme in Kubuntu, is an Emerald theme, for example. (These themes originated from the Beryl project before it merged with Compiz to form Compiz Fusion.)
Emerald is not in the Trusty 12.04 LTS default repositories.

deKorator

deKorator is a window decoration engine for KDE. You can easily install lots of themes with this engine. See the installation instructions at KDE Look.

Google Desktop

Google Desktop for Linux was a proprietary suite of Google widgets and applications. It was discontinued in September 2011.

Dock applications

There are several are dock-like applications for (K)Ubuntu. A dock represents running programs as icons at the bottom of the screen (as is done on the Mac OS X desktop), instead of by toolbar panel segments (as is done in Windows and other Linux window managers). See this brief comparison of dock applications. Also see this Kubuntu forums thread for example implementations.

Of course, the default panel bar can be dragged to any screen edge (Unlock Widgets -> Panel Options -> Panel Settings -> Screen Edge) and the icon for any menu item added to it (Menu -> menu item -> <right-click> -> Add to Panel). This closely resembles the appearance of a docking application.

Icon-Only Taskbar Manager

This plasma widget is available in the default KDE desktop:

KDE Cashew -> Unlock Widgets -> Add Widgets -> Icon-Only Task Manager

The Icon-Only Task Manager has a horizontal orientation by default. To orient it vertically, add it to a vertically oriented empty panel: